


Undone

by adiwriting



Series: Current!Verse [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Cannon Divergent, F/M, Mutant!Felicity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:31:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 11,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8145859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: A collection of drabbles surrounding Felicity’s time at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters leading up to her arrival in Starling City.





	1. March 2005 pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well you guys requested more of Felicity's life before Oliver and her time as an X-Men so here we are. A collection of drabbles that I'll be posting periodically as the inspiration hits. If you have any special requests, let me know! 
> 
> *rating for later chapters

_“History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves.” - Robert Penn Warren_

 

**March 2005:**

Felicity stands outside the classroom, clutching her new class schedule, too nervous to go inside. The students are all seated and the teacher is clearly about to start class, but she can’t make herself take those final steps into the room. 

She still can’t wrap her mind around the fact that this is her life now. She’s a mutant. She goes to Mutant High. She’s been _forced_ to go to mutant high because she’d put a man in the hospital with her powers. 

It doesn’t matter that the man had a gun to her head and totally deserved it, she’d still hospitalized a man and that made it unsafe for her to live at home anymore. She couldn’t risk hurting her mother. 

There was also some lame-ass excuse the bald guy in the chair had given her about exposure and the dangers of being labeled a mutant, but that wasn’t the reason she agreed to come here. She didn’t care about any of that. She only cared about her mom, and doing what she could to protect her. 

So Felicity found herself here. At Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. She has to laugh at the name. Like they are all just so freaking special for having these deadly powers. They are hardly a gift. They are a curse. 

Just a week ago she’d been at Clark High School praying for any opportunity out of Vegas so she could avoid her destiny of becoming a cocktail waitress. This was hardly what she had in mind, though. 

She peeks her head inside again, but pulls back quickly when she sees that one of the kids actually has scales. 

Scales. 

Like a fucking fish. 

She doesn’t belong here. She’s not a freak. Well, not like these kids at least. She may have accidentally electrocuted a man, but that was a one time thing. She’d been scared for her life and reacted. What’s the likelihood of that happening again? What’s the latest statistic? 8.5 out of 1,000 people are victims of a violent crime in Vegas? That’s .85%. She has a less than 1% chance of finding herself in that situation again. 

Is she really going to live here because she’s scared of being part of that 1% again? 

No. Absolutely not. 

She takes a deep breath. This entire thing is stupid. She should be at home. Her mother is going to be worried sick about her. Donna Smoak has never spent a night away from her baby girl, and Felicity knows that no matter what her mom said about being happy for her, she has to be mess right now. She starts to walk towards the entrance, making plans to catch a bus back home to Vegas. 

‘Your mother is fine,’ a voice says and she turns around in shock, but nobody is there. 

‘She thinks you’re at MIT. It was always your dream. She misses you, but she’s happy for you,’ the voice says. 

“Who are you?” she asks, moving in circles trying to figure out where the voice is coming from. 

‘Don’t you recognize me?’ he asks. 

Felicity concentrates really hard, and realizes that the voice does sound familiar to her. 

“Professor?” she says. 

‘That would be correct,’ he says, and though she can’t see him, she can tell he’s smiling. ‘Why don’t you go back to class Felicity. The other students aren’t as scary as they seem. Inside that class, the only thing you’ll find are a bunch of kids just looking for a place to belong, not unlike yourself. I’m sure you’ll make friends fast.’

“Clearly you don’t know me at all,” Felicity scoffs. “I don’t do friends. People don’t like the smart girl that makes them all look bad.” 

‘Well lucky for you, this school is different. Everyone has their own unique talent to bring to the table,’ he says. 

Felicity rolls her eyes at that. The school is full of a whole bunch of freaks, is what he’s saying. 

‘At least give us until lunch before you run away. It’s international day in the dining hall. I think you’ll love the Chinese food Marilyn makes,’ he says. 

She narrows her eyes. Is he reading her mind? How does he know her favorite food is Chinese? She doesn’t like the idea of somebody going through her head and seeing her every thought. 

‘You don’t know this yet, because we haven’t had time to get to know one another,’ he says. ‘But you can trust me with your thoughts. Your secrets are safe with me.’ 

“Whatever,” she says, rolling her eyes and feigning indifference. “I guess I can stick it out with you freaks until lunch.” 

‘That’s the spirit,’ he says with a chuckle. 

“Don’t get too excited,” she says. “I’m leaving after lunch.” 

Felicity walks back to class and enters the room, slumping down into the first open seat she finds. 

“Ah, you must be our new student, Felicity Smoak. Is there another name you’d like to go by?” the teacher asks her. He looks completely normal, but Felicity knows that doesn’t mean much here. After all, she looks almost normal if you don’t pay too much attention to her eyes. 

Felicity shrugs her shoulders, annoyed at being called out in front of everyone. Now everyone is looking at her, even the guy with eyes in the back of his head. It’s creepy. 

“A mutant name perhaps?” he presses. 

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, not caring in the slightest at how rude she’s being. She’s learned that the best way to survive is to make sure that you don’t give anyone power over you. It’s difficult to break the girl who has nothing to lose. 

“Okay then,” the teacher says, clearly taken back but trying to hide it. “My name is Mr. Drake, but the kids here call me Iceman. If you change your mind about the name, just let me know.” 

“Whatever,” she grumbles before pulling her laptop out of her backpack. 

“So Felicity Smoak,” the boy next to her leans over to whisper into her ear. “What do you do, breathe fire?” 

“Are you attempting to make a bad pun because of my last name?” she sneers at the boy. “Because I’m here to tell you that lame jokes won’t get you into my pants. Neither will that god awful Tommy Hilfiger shirt.” 

Behind her, another boy chuckles. Felicity turns around to glare at him, too, expecting to find yet another Abercrombie clone. She’s surprised to find a cute boy with a nice smile, a Nirvana T-Shirt, and perhaps a tad too much eyeliner. 

“Do you even know who Nirvana is?” Felicity sneers, positive that she’s just met some wannabe who thinks that because he’s discovered Fall Out Boy before the inevitable masses do that makes him some kind of trendsetter. There can’t possibly be anyone decent in this island of misfit toys. 

“Probably about as well as you know the symbolism of that necklace you’re wearing,” he says back with a raise of his eyebrow. 

“It’s the Egyptian Ankh,” she says, never one to back down from a challenge. “It’s a symbol for eternal life.” 

“Do you need to me sing all the words to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ for you?” he asks. 

“Please, Abercrombie can do that,” she scoffs with a nod to the boy seated next to her. 

“Ms. Smoak, while I’m glad you’re befriending Eddy, it really should wait til after class,” Mr. Drake — she refuses to call him Iceman — explains. “It’s going to be important for you to pay attention so that you can catch up.” 

“I don’t need to catch up,” she says. “I’ve known how to do calculus since I was 11. And he’s not my friend.” 

“Okay,” Mr. Drake says letting out a big breath, clearly trying to remain patient with her. “Well nevertheless, let’s keep it down so the other students can learn, alright?” 

Felicity gives her an overly fake smile and thumbs up while she mimes zipping her lips with her other hand. 

This is seriously going to be a long year. She opens up her laptop and decides to pass her time by checking up on her mother to make sure she’s doing okay. 

She’s got 40 minutes to kill in this pointless class. It’s more than enough time for Felicity to pull up security camera feeds and track down her mother. It takes less than a minute to track her down at the diner where she occasionally pulls shifts when their neighbor Betsy can’t make it into work and Donna needs more money. Felicity frowns. If her mom is at the diner, it means that the tips at the casino aren’t good this week. 

At least there’s one less mouth to feed with Felicity not around. And since she’s currently on Xavier’s Pity Train, her mom no longer has to save money for MIT. As far as Donna Smoak is concerned, Felicity earned early acceptance and a free ride. If Felicity isn’t at home, maybe her mom can finally stop living paycheck to paycheck and keep an apartment for longer than 3 months at a time. 

“Who’s that?” Abercrombie asks, leaning over her. “She’s hot.” 

Felicity glares at him until he sits back in his chair and directs his attention to the teacher again. 

If she’s really going to be stuck here for the next 2 years until she turns 18 and can live on her own, she’s sure as hell not going to be forced to sit next to pretty boy for those 2 years. She needs to find a more permanent seating arrangement.


	2. March 2005 pt. 2

Felicity grabs a plate of chow mein and thinks that The Professor might have been onto something when he mentioned the food here. It does smell absolutely delicious. Much better than the crap they used to serve at Clark. Even on pizza days, arguably the best days, the food was just barely stomachable. Then again, she did go to a high school for all the trailer park kids. Of course the food sucked. 

This school? It’s never needed money a day in it’s life. It screams luxury and entitlement with its wood paneling, floor to ceiling windows, and ivy covered brick exterior. This place is practically a castle. And the kids that go here all look like they’ve never struggled financially a day in their lives. How else could she explain the $300 jeans on the girl next to her or the Ralph Lauren polos on half of the guys here? 

Felicity feels so incredibly out of place that it’s ridiculous. She’s used to being the outcast. It comes with the territory when you’re as smart as she is. What she’s not used to, is being the only girl in ripped jeans. At least, the kind of ripped jeans that got there because you’ve worn them too many times and your mother can’t afford to replace them. At her old school, everyone lived in Goodwill threads and cheap shoes you bought off Leroy and never asked where they came from because you were sure you wouldn’t like the answer. Felicity’s positive not a single one of these kids even knows what a Goodwill is. 

She is at the soda fountain filling up her cup with Dr. Pepper when Nirvana boy comes up to her. 

“I’m Cooper,” he says with a charming smile that she’s sure is supposed to make her weak in the knees. 

She wonders if he does this to all the girls here. Is he just another one of those creeps that tries to sleep with every girl in their class? Because she’s really not sure what it is he’s doing talking to her. She’s been nothing but cold to him all morning. 

“I thought they said your name was Eddy,” she says, making her way to an unoccupied table in the back corner. She rolls her eyes when he follows her. 

“It is,” he says. “That’s my mutant name.” 

“Your mutant name is Eddy?” she says with a mocking laugh. “I’m shivering in my boots.” 

“It means a circular movement of water, counter to a main current, causing a whirlpool,” he explains. 

“I know what it means,” she says, always annoyed whenever somebody assumes because she’s a girl, she can’t be intelligent. “Doesn’t change the fact that nobody else does. Shouldn’t you have gone for something more obvious and terrifying? Like Whirlpool? Or Hurricane? Or hey, you could be called Splash!” 

“Why would I cater to the masses and their ignorance? I like that my name makes them stop and contemplate their own stupidity. Maybe it’ll make them think for once in their life,” he says, taking a seat next to her without waiting for an invitation. 

Felicity wants to smile at that, because it sounds so much like something she would say. Like something she’s probably already said on her blog. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t know this Cooper kid. And while he seems promising, and she could use a friend, she still doesn’t know if he can be trusted. 

“That seems harsh,” she says instead, simply so she can have a comeback.

“I think you and I both know there’s more out there in the world than Destiny’s Child breaking up and who won American Idol,” he says. 

“I hate American Idol.” 

“Good, then I think we’re going to get along just fine,” Cooper says. 

She rolls her eyes and doesn’t say anything for the rest of lunch, but that doesn’t stop Cooper. He spends the entire lunch hour rambling on and on. It’s quite possible that he actually talks more than she does. And though she’ll never admit it to anyone, it’s nice not sitting alone at lunch for once. 

‘See,’ The Professor says at the end of the lunch hour as she’s starting to clean up. ‘It’s not all bad here.’ 

She sincerely hopes that he’s reading her mind right now, because she’s mentally flipping him off.


	3. March 2005 pt. 3

Felicity sits against her favorite oak tree with Cooper at her side. They’ve only known each other for a few days, but already they’ve found they have a hobby in common — people watching. They both enjoy sitting back and making fun of their classmates during their free time. 

“I don’t get the appeal of Mr. Drake,” Felicity says. “Why do all the girls around here follow him around like he’s some Greek god?” 

“Iceman?” Cooper asks, sitting up so that he can get a better look at their teacher, who’s currently across the pond helping out one of the younger mutants. 

“I mean, what? Does he have like candy flavored balls or something?” she asks. 

Cooper shrugs. “It’s probably because he’s totally lost it over some human,” he says. “You know how girls are. He’s unattainable.” 

“He’s dating a human?” Felicity asks, intrigued. “Is that even allowed?” 

Cooper laughs, causing her to glare at him. She doesn’t like being mocked. 

“Sorry,” he says, putting his hands up in surrender. “I sometimes forget that you are completely new here. The Professor is all about improving mutant/human interactions. I’m sure he has no problem with Iceman and his girlfriend.” 

“I see,” Felicity says. 

She honestly hasn’t given dating a second thought since becoming a mutant. She’s had a lot more important things on her plate over the last two weeks. But she can’t see herself dating a human. How could they ever possibly understand her? 

“Fantasizing about your own boyfriend back home?” Cooper asks. 

“No,” she snaps at him, before realizing she’s done it and sends him an apologetic look. “There’s nobody back home,” she says. 

“I find that hard to believe.” 

“Well you shouldn’t,” she says. “I’m a bitch. Nobody wants to be my friend, let alone date me.” 

“I want to be your friend,” Cooper says, then gives her a once over like he’s checking her out for the first time, even though she knows he checks her out almost every day. He’s not subtle with his adoration of her — or rather, of her ass. 

“I’d also date you,” he adds. “The kids at your old school must have been a special kind of stupid.” 

“They were,” she says. 

When he doesn’t respond, but keeps looking at her, she knows that he must want her to say more. Usually, this is the point where she’d brush somebody off with a rude comment, but she’s finding she doesn’t want to do that with Cooper. She enjoys having somebody to talk to. So she decides to open up, even if it’s just the tiniest bit. 

“I’m from Vegas,” she says. “Where I’m from, everyone is a Barbie doll who thinks that the epitome of success is headlining a show at one of the big casinos. You can imagine what they thought of the brunette with purple hair and a nose ring who was obsessed with STEM.” 

“The joke’s gonna be on them,” Cooper says. “And I like your purple hair. It gives you edge.” 

Felicity smiles, despite herself. 

“You need a mutant name,” Cooper tells her, suddenly. 

“I don’t need a mutant name,” she argues with a laugh. 

Ever since coming here, it seems like everyone wants to know her mutant name, which just makes her that much less interested in having one at all. She doesn't like doing things just because she's supposed to. It's not a good enough reason. 

“Everyone needs a mutant name,” he says. “It’s like an initiation. Why be ordinary, Felicity, when you could be something extraordinary.” 

“Okay,” she snorts, rolling her eyes at him. 

“I’m serious,” he says. “You have this amazing ability, you should embrace it.” 

“Why would I embrace the very thing that forced me out of my home and almost killed a man?” she asks. 

“You’ll see it one day,” he says. “Being a mutant isn’t all bad. It’s actually really kind of great.” 

“Whatever you say.” 

“How about Particle?” he suggests. 

She rolls her eyes. “No.” 

If she were ever to agree to a mutant name, it's not going to be one suggested by a boy who picked the name Eddy.


	4. May 2005

“How about Wire?” he suggests. 

They are both in her room, lying on her bed. They are supposed to be working on their ethics final for Frost’s class, but Cooper is proving no help. He’s too busy trying to come up with a Mutant name for her. It’s been 2 months and she’s turned down every stupid suggestion he’s had. 

“What’s wrong with Felicity?” she argues. “I like it.” 

“When we’re out there fighting with the X-Men, do you really want your enemies to know your real name? To be able to track you down? To be able to track your family down?” he counters. 

“Who says I’m going to be working with the X-Men? I’m leaving this place the second I turn 18,” she says. 

She’s not trying to be a hero. She’s just trying to learn how to use her powers without killing anybody. She’s just trying to survive. Everyone else can fend for themselves. The world’s never been kind to her, so why should she save it?

“You aren’t going to leave this place, you love it here,” he says, moving in closer so that they are now touching from hip to ankle. She won’t admit it to anyone, but it feels good to be close to somebody, even if he doesn’t give her butterflies like Kitty says happens with her and Colossus. 

She refuses to admit that Cooper might be right. She does secretly enjoy this school. It’s nice to be somewhere that she’s not the weirdest kid there. Somewhere that appreciates her intelligence, if not always her sass. However, she’ll be damned if she ever says that aloud. 

“I hate to break this to you, but I don’t do yellow,” she says, instead. 

“That’s a shame, you’d look really hot in some skin-tight spandex,” he says, knocking his shoulder with hers. 

Felicity blushes at the compliment, shaking her head in denial. He has no idea what he’s talking about. She has thick thighs that look alright enough in her favorite black skinny jeans, but would be awful in yellow spandex. She was not gifted with her mother’s figure. Donna Smoak is the model in the family, Felicity is the brains. She accepted that long ago. 

Cooper leans in and soon they are so close that she can feel his breath on her face. 

“I’m not here to play hero,” she says quietly. “I just want to graduate and move on with my life.” 

“I beg to differ.” 

He leans in and soon his lips are touching hers. 

She can’t say that she’s sat around imagining what it would be like to kiss Cooper, but now that his lips are on hers, it’s good. It’s really good. She’s kissed other boys before, and those have all been decent enough. But with Cooper, it’s different. He’s the first boy to ever really see her. The other boys she’s kissed? All they’d seen was the makeup, colored highlights, and daddy issues. With her, they’d seen little more than a good time. Somebody willing to skip Science class to make out in the janitor’s closet. 

Cooper is different. He knows her. As much as it pains her to admit it, he sees through her tough exterior. She can pretend to be indifferent all she wants, but Cooper knows the truth. He cares about her as a person first. 

It’s nice. 

He’s nice. 

His hand comes up to grab the back of her neck and pull her in closer and she lets him. Her lips open under his and soon his tongue is in her mouth and he’s pulling her on top of him. His hand is making it’s way under her shirt when there’s a sudden knock at the door. 

“Come on you guys!” Kitty yells through the door. “Dinner started 5 minutes ago and I’m starving!” 

Felicity rolls off of Cooper and moves to stand up, but his hand reaches out to grab onto her wrist, keeping her in bed. 

“We’ll be there in a minute,” Cooper says. “Just need to finish this one slide on our powerpoint!” 

“We should really get to dinner,” she says. “It’s been at least an hour since I last ate and you know how hungry I get.” 

“Not yet,” Cooper says. “I want to say something first.” 

“I think that kiss you gave me said plenty.” 

“Felicity Smoak, you are the most real person I’ve ever met. And underneath all this black makeup, I know your heart is as pure as they come. No matter how many walls you build to prove otherwise. You’re going to save the world one day, whether it’s with the X-Men or not. I just want to be there when you do,” he says. 

She rolls her eyes at him. He’s wrong. She’s no hero. She’s hardly worth the adoration he sends her way. She’s just Felicity. There’s nothing special about her. However, she can’t deny it feels good to have somebody believe in her the way Cooper does. 

“You’re so cheesy,” she says, trying to hide how much his words mean to her. Nobody’s ever seen her like he does. Nobody except her mom.

“God. It’s like a damn Hallmark card,” she say with a mocking laugh. 

She stands up out of bed and pulls her shirt back down from where it’s ridden up and runs her hands through her hair. If she comes out of this room with one hair out of place, Kitty will know they’d been making out and Felicity will never hear the end of it. 

“I see you didn’t try and punch me for kissing you,” Cooper says, standing up and smiling at her in that self-satisfied way. She hates that smile. Usually. But today, she’s too happy with this turn of events to try and take him down a peg. 

“No, I didn’t,” she says with a blush. Quickly adding, “I should,” so that he doesn’t think he’s got her completely wrapped around his finger. That would be dangerous. 

“But you won’t,” he smirks. 

She shoves him lightly and refuses to dignify that with a response. He’s right. She won’t.


	5. September 2005

“Just concentrate,” Wolverine tells her with such a condescending tone that she thinks she might actually hit him. 

Storm and The Professor are out, which means they’ve put Wolverine in charge of her one-on-one session. They had to have been high when they made that decision, because there’s no way she’s learning anything from this giant caveman. He’s a bully and if she had any control of her powers, she’d zap him right now. 

“I can concentrate all I want, it’s not. Going. To. Work,” she says, throwing her hands up in frustration. “I told you, I can’t just summon my powers like everyone else can. They just happen.” 

“You can and you will,” Wolverine says. “You just need to stop being a brat and concentrate.” 

She scoffs. “You’re a teacher, you’re not allowed to call me a brat!” 

“I’m a sub,” he says with a smirk. “And since no other professor at this school is willing to put up with your ass, I’m the one that got stuck with you. So let’s just get this over with so we can tell The Professor we tried, okay Princess?” 

Felicity can’t believe the balls on this guy. She’s so angry that she can barely see straight. The electricity in her body starts to build and the next thing she knows, she’s flat on her ass and all the lights in the room have gone out. 

“Huh,” Wolverine says with an amused chuckle. 

“What?” she snaps at him, moving until she’s back on her feet again. 

“Jean said anger might be your key,” he says. “Looks like she was right.” 

“You purposefully pissed me off?” she asks, rolling her eyes in annoyance. She doesn’t know if she’s more annoyed at him for doing so or herself for falling for it. 

“You mean like you do everyday with your teachers?” he asks. “Karma’s a bitch.” 

“I’m a teen,” she says, crossing her arms. “I’m supposed to be angsty. What’s your excuse?” 

“I don’t have one,” he says. “I’m just an ass. 

She laughs at that, but quickly covers her smile up with a sneer. 

“Listen, I know half the staff hates you because you’re all overcome with feelings and stuff,” he says. 

“Do you think I care?” she says with a glare, unwilling to admit how much his words sting. She may be a pain in class and do everything in her power to push people away, but that doesn’t mean she wants them to leave. She just likes to know the runners before she gets too attached. She’d made that mistake with her father, and she’s never making it again. 

“Do you see me complaining?” he says. “They all hate me, too. We can form a club. What I was going to say, is that I don’t think you should change. If anything, I think you should give them more shit than you do. Somebody needs to take Scott down several notches.” 

This time, her smile is genuine and despite her best judgement, she doesn’t try to hide it. 

“You know your crush on Jean Grey isn’t even the slightest bit subtle, right?” she says, unable to resist. 

“And you know you aren’t fooling me with that nose ring and 90s Goth makeup right?” he counters, with a raise of his eyebrow. 

“It’s called style. Do you need me to find you some?” she asks. 

“It’s called my daddy ran away with I was young and now I’m going to punish the world for it to make sure that nobody will ever get close to me again,” he says. “It’s daddy issues 101.” 

“You’re an asshole,” she says, but it’s only half-hearted. It’s so rare that she finds anybody that can keep up with her, and she has to admit. She likes it. 

“Takes one to know one kid,” he says. “Now, about this boyfriend that you keep running around with…”


	6. November 2005

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the continued support! As always, if you have a prompt, leave a comment here or send me an ask on Tumblr (adiwriting)

“He’s a total jackass,” Cooper says, pacing back and forth in front of her bed. “I hate him.” 

“I like him,” she says, reading her book, only half paying attention to Cooper’s rampage that’s been going on for the last 15 minutes. 

Cooper stops dead in his tracks. When she doesn’t react, he takes the book out of her hand and stares at her in disbelief. 

“What?” she asks, annoyed.

“You do not,” he says. “You don’t like anybody.” 

“Logan’s funny,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“Logan?” Cooper scoffs. “You guys are on a first name basis now.” 

“Oh my god, don’t tell me you’re jealous. He’s like 40,” she says. 

“He’s actually closer to 120,” Cooper says.

Felicity files that little fact away to ask Logan about later. Cooper doesn’t seem like he’s in the mood to cater to her curiosity when he looks like somebody’s just pissed in his Wheaties. 

“Green doesn’t look good on you,” she says.

“Tell me that you don’t want to sleep with him,” he says. 

“Gross! I don’t want to sleep with him. Calm down, Psycho,” she says. She’s never found insecurity to be sexy on a man. 

“You promise?” he asks, crawling onto the bed to lay beside her. 

“I swear,” Felicity says with a roll of her eyes. “Now can we stop this cliched argument. It’s like a bad Lifetime movie.” 

“Fine,” he says. “But I still don’t like him.” 

“Noted,” she says, turning back to her book, but Cooper keeps staring at her. 

“What now?” she asks, with a deep sigh. At this rate, she’s never going to find out how in the hell Shadow just died with over 100 pages still to go in the book. 

Cooper reaches over, takes the book out of her hand and tosses it across the room. The book hits the floor and slides until hit hits her desk. The pages are going to be all bent and she’s going to have a hell of a time finding her place again. 

She glares at him. “Now I’ve lost my spot.” 

“Felicity…” he says giving her what she’s sure is supposed to be a sultry look. 

It does nothing for her when she’s still too annoyed by his behavior. 

“If you wanted to make out to assert your manhood and assure yourself that I’m not into Logan, you could ask. You didn’t have to toss my book aside and bend all the pages. It’s not even mine, it’s Kitty’s,” she says. 

She glares at him, but it’s hard to stay mad when his hand is making it’s way under her shirt and up to her breast. 

“Felicity,” he says again, and this time she tries not to smile as he begins to roll her nipple between his fingers. 

“What?” she asks. 

“I want to make out to assert my manhood and assure myself that you’re not into Logan,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows at her. 

Felicity snorts at that. 

“God, you’re such a boy,” she says with a laugh. 

“Yes,” he says, rolling on top of her so that he’s pinning her to the bed. “That’s why you like me.” 

He grounds his hips down into hers and she can feel that he’s already half-hard in his pants. 

“For the record, your jealousy does nothing for me,” she tells him as he leans over to start trailing kisses down her neck. 

“I wouldn’t have a reason to be jealous if you weren’t so damn attractive,” he says, continuing to knead her breast in his palm. “You need to start making it more clear to people that you’re mine.” 

“I’m not yours,” Felicity tells him. “You don’t own me.” 

“God forbid Felicity Smoak loses control for even a second,” he says with a teasing voice. 

“You like it when I take control,” she tells him, pushing him off of her and rolling them around so that she’s straddling him. She then sits back and stares down at him, sending him a knowing look when she feels him harden in his pants. 

“Damn right I do,” he says with a smile. “Just so long as nobody else gets to see you like this.” 

“That’s not your decision to make,” she tells him, even though they both know that she’s not going anywhere. There’s nobody at this school that even remotely catches her fancy the way that Cooper does. 

“You don’t have to keep trying to push me away to see if I’ll leave,” Cooper tells her, sitting up to run a hand through her hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”


	7. March 2006

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the continued support! So glad that people enjoy early Felicity as much as I do, even if it means we don't get Oliver :( 
> 
> As always, prompts for Current!Verse are welcome. You can leave me a comment or head over to Tumblr and send me an ask (adiwriting)

“Hey, Kitty,” Felicity says quietly, so not to be heard by the other students who are all practically comatose watching a movie on mutant rights in history. “Come look.” 

Felicity doesn’t want to call attention to herself or what she’s doing, lest she get in serious trouble. But she also can’t wait to show off the new trick she’d just learned. Thankfully, The Professor’s been gone for the last month working in Washington so he isn’t around to go sneaking through her thoughts. 

Kitty carefully moves her chair around the table until she’s sitting next to Felicity. 

Felicity glances around to make sure that nobody else is watching, then touches the side of her tablet. Within seconds, the NSA mainframe appears on the screen. 

Kitty gasps. 

“Did you just hack into the NSA?” she whispers in disbelief. Felicity smiles at her and nods her head. 

“It takes me hours to do that,” Kitty whispers, grabbing the tablet out of her hand and typing in a few things, trying to see if it’s really the NSA mainframe or a trick. 

“Oh my god,” Kitty says, smiling at her once she realizes that it’s not a trick. “This is like, really impressive.” 

Felicity smirks. She’s not going to lie, she’s pretty proud of herself for mastering that new trick. She’s always been good with computers, but now she’s can actually hack into anything without a single keystroke. 

“You’re coming to training with me, today,” Kitty says. “We need you.” 

“I don’t want to be part of your Jr. X-Men,” she says. 

“Everyone wants to be an X-Men,” Kitty says. “Stop pretending otherwise.” 

Felicity takes the rest of the morning to mull it over, but by lunchtime she’s decided that she’ll at least give the Jr. X-Men a chance. She’ll see how a single practice goes. She’ll learn what it is they’d even expect her to do. Nothing is saying because she goes once, she has to join the team. After all, she’s not here to save the world. 

“I thought you didn’t want to be a hero,” Cooper says with a mocking tone when he hears the news that she can’t come to his room after specials, because she is going to train with Kitty instead.

“I don’t,” she tells him. The last thing she wants to do is give Cooper the belief that she actually cares about helping people. He’d never let her live it down. “I’m just curious what the teacher’s pets get up to after school. I’ll go once, get Kitty off my back, then be done. Relax.” 

“I just don’t understand,” Cooper whines, making her roll her eyes. “You don’t even want to be part of the X-Men and they chose you.” 

“Careful,” Felicity says in warning. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you.” 

He’s never come outright and said it to her, but with how much talks about the X-Men, she knows that he wants to be one. And there is a part of her that feels bad that she’s been invited to a training session and he hasn’t. However, that doesn’t mean she is going to put up with him being bitter. It’s not her fault he’s never been invited. It’s not like he’s ever listened to her when she’s told him that he tries too hard. 

“What are you even going to do for them? You can’t control your energy yet. You’re going to get somebody killed,” he says. 

Felicity stands from the table and grabs her bag, storming off before he can try to apologize. He stepped over the line. He’d gone too far and his words had quite frankly hurt. He knows how upset she still is over sending that man to the hospital with her powers. She’d told him as much. She never expected that he’d then use it against her. It’s a low blow and she doesn't have to put up with it. Not from him. 

Rather than stay and let him continue to degrade her all because he’s upset that he’s been trying to get into the Jr. X-Men for months and can’t, she decides to leave. 

She doesn’t need that kind of friend and she certainly doesn’t need that kind of boyfriend. 

“What’s wrong?” Kitty asks when Felicity plops herself down at Kitty’s lunch table instead. 

“We aren’t talking to Cooper,” she says. 

“Fine by me,” Kitty says, turning back to her lunch without any further explanation. 

This is why Felicity loves Kitty, despite what Cooper says about her. She doesn’t expect a lot from Felicity. Kitty takes her as she is and accepts what she says as truth without needing Felicity to sit there and rehash her every thought and feeling.


	8. April 2006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, prompts for Current!Verse are welcome. You can leave me a comment or head over to Tumblr and send me an ask (adiwriting)

Felicity is in New York City for 4 days with school the first time she really realizes how badly the world treats mutants. Oh, she’s heard stories before. She’s seen the videos they watch in history class. However, she’s never experienced it herself. After all, she has “passing privilege” she’s been told. In a crowd of people, nobody would ever know she was a mutant without asking her first. The physical effects of her mutation — the too blue eyes, the occasional small shocks of electricity from her fingers when she touches things — they can’t be seen without a trained eye, and even then, they can be explained away. 

So, it’s not until she’s out with her entire school at the Hayden Planetarium that she truly realizes how bad it is out there for her kind. 

As one of the high schoolers, she’s been assigned 3 second graders to supervise. They’ve just separated from the main group in order to make a bathroom stop for Hannah, when it happens. A man spits on Cindy and calls her a freak. 

“Ignore him,” Felicity says, pulling Cindy closer to her. “He’s too ignorant to know better.” 

What she doesn’t realize, is that she’s said it loud enough for the man to overhear her. Faster than she can react, he pulls a knife out and comes at them. 

“You think you’re better than us?” he sneers at her. 

“Help!” Annabelle yells, while Cindy starts to cry. 

Felicity holds up her hands to shock the man, but nothing happens. She still can’t always control her powers and it seems, now, when she needs them, they are useless. She grabs onto Annabelle and Cindy and walks them backwards, trying to get away from the man before he can hurt them. 

“You stupid bitch,” the man says. “You shouldn’t have come here. How dare you come around our children.” 

“Calm down,” she tries to tell him, pushing the girls behind her in case he decides to attack. 

Felicity watches in horror as people stop to watch, but nobody decides to intervene. Nobody reaches for a cell phone to call the police. In fact, there are more than a few people egging the man on. Telling him if he attacks, they’ll have his back. They’ll claim it’s self defense. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Felicity says while Annabell continues to yell for help. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Felicity sees Hannah come out of the bathroom, but when she goes to grab her, the man notices. He grabs Hannah first and shoves the knife into her stomach quicker than Felicity can react. 

She screams, and suddenly everything freezes.

The Professor breaks through the crowd, and while he’s usually calm in any situation, even he looks worried. 

“Where’s Lydia?” The Professor asks, practically yelling. “Where is she?” 

A young girl pushes her way through the crowd with Dr. Grey at her side. The girl can’t be more than 5, but with Dr. Grey’s help, they pull Hannah from the man’s frozen arms and lay her on the floor. Then the girl — Lydia, Felicity presumes — waves her hands over Hannah’s stab wound. Within seconds, it begins to heal and the entire wound closes up. But her shirt is still torn and covered in blood, proving to Felicity that this really did just happen. 

Cooper makes his way through the crowd and goes to wrap his arms around her, but she pushes him off. She isn’t in the mood for comfort right now. It’s her fault that girl was just stabbed. She was supposed to take care of them and her powers had failed her. 

‘It’s alright,’ The Professor says.

Felicity glares at him. How is any of this alright? A little girl was just stabbed for no reason apart from the fact that they are mutants and that Felicity has a penchant for pissing people off. 

‘You’ll do better next time,’ he says. 

“I don’t want there to be a next time,” she tells him, shaking his head. 

‘Then you’ll train,’ he says, turning away from her to check on Hannah, but continuing his conversation. ‘You’ll work harder during our sessions and you’ll do everything in your power to become an X-Men to fight against this type of bigotry in the world.’ 

She isn’t a hero, she thinks. Just look at what happened today. 

Then Cindy and Annabelle wrap their arms around her legs and the Professor says, ‘You’re a hero to them.’


	9. June 2006

“I’m so sorry!” Felicity says as she kneels next to Cooper and reaches out to put her hand on his shoulder, but he flinches and moves away from her touch. 

“No, don’t touch me, it’ll only make it worse,” he says. 

“I didn’t know that was going to happen,” she tries to explain. “You caught me by surprise.” 

“Nope. Totally my fault, got it,” Cooper says. 

He sounds winded. She wants to get the nurse, but she’s also not sure that she wants to explain exactly how Cooper got electrocuted. They’ll both get in trouble if she has to explain that they’d been about to have sex.

“You should just go, okay,” Cooper says. “We’ll both get in trouble if you’re caught in my room after hours.” 

Felicity’s eyes well with tears. Cooper’s never been concerned about getting in trouble before. They always sneak into each other’s rooms at night. It’s their thing. So what he’s really telling her is that he doesn’t want her around. 

She blinks rapidly, trying her best not to start sobbing in the middle of his room, as she grabs her clothes off of the floor. She slowly dresses herself, hoping that he’ll apologize before she finishes. He’s hurt and scared, she gets that. She’d been scared too when she shocked him, but one mistake can’t really be the end of them, can it? 

Then again, Felicity knows better than most, it doesn’t take much for a man to leave. Her father hadn’t even given a reason. He’d just left. What if this is all it takes for Cooper to change his mind about her. 

Oh god. She’s ruined this. 

Cooper doesn’t want her anymore. She should have known better than to think that anyone could really love her. 

The next day, Felicity is training outside near the lake and Cooper walks past her, barely looking in her direction. 

She is so distracted that Kitty lands a kick right to her stomach. Felicity falls to the ground and struggles to catch her breath. 

“You’re losing your focus, Kid,” Logan says as he stands over her. “Do that in the field and you’ll find yourself dead.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Felicity grumbles as she moves to her feet. She knows that he’s right, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy about it. She’s in the middle of combat training, the last thing she should be focused on is Cooper. 

“Is he still ignoring you?” Kitty asks, once Logan moves onto the next group of students. 

“He doesn’t want to talk about it. He won’t see me,” she complains. “I don’t know how to fix it.” 

“You don’t have to fix it,” Kitty says. “He’s being completely immature.” 

“I electrocuted him,” she says. “He has every right to be upset. He’s probably terrified of me.” 

“He’s just pissed he didn’t get off,” Kitty says, with a roll of his eyes. “What he needs is about 20 minutes with a bottle of lube and his right hand. He’ll get over it.” 

“What if he can’t?” 

“Then I suggest you find a real man,” she says with a smile that can’t mean anything good. “Like Logan.” 

“Gross,” Felicity says. 

“I’m telling you, you should climb him like a tree,” Kitty says. “He has healing power. You could electrocute him all you want and he wouldn’t even flinch.” 

“He’s like my brother,” Felicity says, angrily. 

She doesn’t know why the entire school has decided to spread this insane rumor that Logan and her are hooking up. For one thing, he’s a teacher and she would never. For another thing, they are like siblings. Just because he’s been helping her control her powers, doesn’t mean that they are having sex. It is possible to have a platonic relationship with someone of the opposite sex. 

“Fine, don’t screw Logan,” Kitty says. “Just find somebody. Cause Coop is not worth your tears.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, prompts for Current!Verse are welcome. You can leave me a comment or head over to Tumblr and send me an ask (adiwriting)


	10. July 2006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continue to be so grateful for all the support you guys give me! <3

“I don’t understand why you won’t talk to me,” Felicity says, trying her best to hold back her tears. 

It’s been three weeks of him ignoring her completely. She’s tried everything to get him to sit down and have a conversation with her. And finally, finally, he’s agreed to talk to her. 

“Because, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Cooper says. “I love you. I really do. But we can’t be in a relationship if we can’t be intimate with each other.” 

“I want that for us too, Coop,” she says, reaching out for him. He doesn’t reach back and she has to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from sobbing. 

“Do you?” he asks in disbelief. 

“That’s not fair, you know I love you,” Felicity argues. 

She can hear his breath catch. 

“What?” she asks. 

“You’ve never said that before,” he says in disbelief. 

Hadn’t she? She knows she’s guarded with her words, but even if she’s never actually said it, he had to know it’s true. 

“You know I love you,” she says. 

“I really didn’t.” He shakes his head. 

Well, it’s now or never. If she wants to keep him from leaving, she’s going to have to open up to him. She has to lay it all out, or she’ll regret it for the rest of her life. 

“I love you, Cooper,” she says. “Please don’t leave me. Not over this.” 

Cooper moves to stand in front of her. Tentatively, he raises his hand and brushes the tears off of her face. 

“I love you, too,” he whispers, his voice is shaky. “But I don’t know how to be in a relationship with you if we can’t be together in the way that you’re supposed to. I mean… I have needs. I don’t want to grow to resent you because you can’t fulfil them. I’d hate that. Maybe we’re just better off as friends.” 

“Coop,” she cries. 

He starts to step away from her and all she can see is her father walking out on them. Her heart breaks into a million pieces. She can’t let him leave her. She won't survive it. 

She reaches out and grabs onto his wrist to hold him in place. He turns back to meet her eyes. 

“I shocked you when we tried to have sex… I shocked you because I got worked up. So maybe we don’t do that. Maybe that’s not something we can do together. That doesn’t mean I can’t be what you need.” 

“What do you mean?” he asks. 

“Give me a chance to show you that I can still fulfill your needs,” she says, sinking down to her knees. 

He stares at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. 

“You would really do this?” he asks her. “Even when you know I can’t ever return the favor. You could kill me if I try.” 

“I don’t want to loose you,” Felicity says. 

Cooper nods in understanding and his hands go to his belt buckle. “Okay,” he says. 

And though Felicity’s never done this before, she knows in her heart it’s the right thing to do. Just because she’s probably never going to be able to have sex in her life, doesn’t mean she can’t make sure that her partner is taken care of. She loves Cooper. He deserves to feel good, even if she can’t.


	11. August 2006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some mature sexual content at the end, so if that's not for you, go ahead and skip everything after Felicity leaves the Professor's office. 
> 
> Also, there is discussion about consent in this chapter, with a character questioning whether or not Felicity is giving it willingly. If that kind of thing is a trigger for you, I'd skip this drabble.

Felicity takes a seat in the Professor’s office. She’s been called out of class and in the entire walk from science, she hasn’t been able to figure out why.

It can’t be because she’d corrected Cyclops in class yesterday. It would hardly be the first time she’d done so and to be honest, she’s done far worse. 

Does it have to do with how she hacked into Caesar’s Palace and made sure that her mom had an extra $200 on her paycheck to cover rent? Because it seems like something they would have addressed last week when it happened. 

It can’t possibly be about her training on the Jr. X-Men because, despite her protests, she actually enjoys her time with them. She hasn’t made a single sassy comment, even though she’s thought up plenty.

So really, there’s no reason that Felicity should find herself in the Professor’s office. Yet, in his office she is. 

“Are you going to tell me what I did?” she asks, crossing her arms defiantly.

She’s never had a problem with the Professor like she has some of her other teachers, but that doesn’t mean that she’s ever been particularly close with him either. He’s often gone away on business for one thing or another. When he is here, his attention is on his X-Men more often than not. So she doesn’t know him well enough to know for sure if she can trust him. 

“It’s alright. I’m not going to expel you,” he says, reading her mind. 

“Has anyone ever told you that it’s incredibly creepy when you do that?” she says, dropping her arms to her lap, but then she immediately starts playing with her necklace, unable to keep still from nerves. 

“More than a few,” he says with an easy chuckle. 

“Are you going to tell me why I’m here?” she asks. “Because Dr. McCoy was giving a  _ riveting _ lecture on genetics.”

“One that you were only half paying attention to, no doubt,” he says with a smile, then holds up his hands before she can start arguing with him. “It’s not your fault. We haven’t been challenging you enough in classes. You’re bored. We’ll do better.”

“Is that what you brought me in here to tell me?” she asks. 

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “I wanted to ask how you are doing.” 

“Fine,” she says, looking at him like he’s crazy. Why on Earth does he care how she’s doing? Doesn’t he have more important things to be doing with his time?

“Felicity,” he says, fixing her with an intense stare that makes her feel all too exposed. “It’s easy when you’re a mutant and a teenager to feel like you don’t matter. Especially with the experiences you had growing up. It’s common to get lost in insecurities and think that you don’t deserve any more than what you’re given. But it’s simply not true.” 

Felicity isn’t sure where this Sesame Street, high school special is coming from, but she knows that she wants no part in it. 

“Don’t,” she says, a dangerous tone to her voice. “Don’t look at me like a sad, lost puppy that needs to be adopted. I’m not going to be your next project. I’m not the angsty girl with daddy issues you get to give a pep talk to so that you can go back to the teacher’s lounge and brag about how you made a difference in somebody’s life. You don’t know me and I sure as hell don’t need you saving me. I don’t know if this is some sad attempt at redemption to make up for the girl you couldn’t help before. Or if this is an ego thing to prove that you’re a good man. But hear me when I say this, Professor, because I’ll only say it once. Don’t.” 

“There’s no need to be defensive,” he says, not even the slightest bit rattled by her rant, and that angers her more than anything. All she wants is a reaction. Because if she can get a reaction, he’ll stop looking at her like he sees right through her. 

“I’m going to leave now,” she says, moving to stand up. 

“I know you love him,” he says, and the words stop her in her tracks. “I also know that he loves you.”

She turns back around to look at him in disbelief. 

“This is about Cooper?”

“I could remind you that it’s against the rules to sneak into the boys dormitories after hours,” he tells her and her entire face heats up in embarrassment.

Of course he knew that Cooper and her had started fooling around. He’s the Professor. There’s not a single thing that happens in his school without him knowing about it. 

God, she’s such an idiot. 

She plops back down in her chair and covers her face with her hands. 

“I could explain that you’re too young to be having sex,” he continues, while she tries to figure out if there’s any way to get the ground to swallow her whole. “But the fact remains that no matter what I do, you two will find a way to do whatever you want.” 

“We would,” she says, defensively, not wanting him to see how much this conversation bothers her. He is the last person she wants to be discussing her sex life with. Well… second to last. She’s pretty sure that Logan would actually be the worst person to discuss her sex life with. 

“Felicity, look at me,” he says. 

At first she refuses, but he simply waits in silence and eventually she realizes that he’s not going to say anything until she looks up. And while she’s as stubborn as they come and could probably wait him out until at least Hanukkah before even thinking about giving in, she would like to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible. So she meets his eyes.

“I just want to make sure that you are okay, and that you know what you are getting yourself into,” he says.

“My mom gave me the safe sex talk when I was 11,” she says, unamused. “I don’t need another one.”

“Right,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m not here to teach you how to put on a condom. We have sex ed classes for that.” 

“Then what do you want?” she asks.

“I just want to make sure that you know, it’s okay to say ‘no,’” he says. 

It takes a few seconds for his words to sink in, but once they do, her eyes go wide and she immediately gets offended. 

“Is that what you think is happening?” she asks, standing back up. “That I’m some victim here who can’t get out of a bad relationship? No. It’s… No. Cooper and I love each other. I very much enjoy what we do. It’s consensual. In fact, us? The stuff we’re doing? It was my idea. So just… stop.” 

“Okay,” the professor says, holding up his arms in surrender. “I just want to make sure that you know you there are people at this school you can talk to if you need.” 

“Well I don’t need,” she says. “I’m going to leave now and we are never going to have this conversation again.”

“Felicity—” he starts to say, but she storms out of his office and slams the door before he can finish that thought. 

‘I just want you to know that you deserve so much more than you let yourself have,’ he says, projecting himself into her mind. 

‘I deserve to be loved, and that’s what Cooper gives me,’ she says. ‘Unconditionally.’ 

He must sense that she isn’t willing to talk about it any further, because he drops their communication. 

Thankfully. 

Felicity storms outside until she finds Cooper by the pond. Without explanation, she grabs his hand and drags him back towards the mansion until they reach the groundskeeper’s shed. She pulls him inside and shuts the door behind them, pushing him against the door.

She then drops to her knees and begins unbuckling his belt. 

“Um… What is going onnnnnnn,” he loses his ability to talk as she reaches into his boxers to take hold of him. 

She makes quick work of his pants, pulling them down and around his ankles. His boxers quickly follow. 

“Not that I mind in the slightest, but is there a particular reason for this?” he asks her. 

“Yep,” she says, but doesn’t elaborate any further. 

“And are you going to share with the class?” he asks. 

“Nope.” 

He stares at her for another minute, before shrugging his shoulders. 

“Well Felicity Smoak, I don’t know what’s the matter, but feel free to work it out your issues using my body,” he says gesturing down at where he’s already completely hard and waiting for her. 

He doesn’t have to tell her twice. 

Just wanting to make sure she knows she can say no. Whatever, she thinks with a roll of her eyes. As if Felicity would ever let herself be a victim. No. She’s in complete control of their relationship. 

Fuck whatever the Professor thinks. What does he know? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all the comments and support on this one. I love reading all of your rage at Cooper and how he compares (or really, doesn't compare in the slightest) to Oliver. 
> 
> You all are the best <3


	12. January 2007

**January 2007:**

Felicity sits on the couch and tries not to rage as she watches the press conference where yet another Senator is discussing how awful mutants are. They’ve been calling for a registration act for months now. Their teachers have all assured them that it’ll never pass, but it’s starting to look like a very real possibility. 

“You guys don’t need to be watching this,” Dr. Grey says as she enters the room and turns off the TV without even touching the remote. 

Felicity rolls her eyes in annoyance, because of course it’s Dr. Grey that interrupts them. She reaches over and touches the lamp on the table next to her, sending a current through the lamp, into the wall, and back out to the television. It turns back on in less than a second. 

“We deserve to know what’s happening,” Felicity says. 

She’s never been overly fond of Dr. Grey. For starters, she chose Scott Summers over Logan, which is already a big no in Felicity’s book. But if that wasn’t enough, she treats them all like children. They are nearly 18 years old and training to be a part of the X-Men. They don’t need to be coddled. They need to be informed.

“What’s happening is some hateful people are trying to spread ignorance about our kind,” Dr. Grey says. “It’ll never pass.”

“Really? Because it looks like the bill has a lot of supporters,” Cooper says. 

“It’s a human rights issue and goes against our constitutional rights,” Dr. Grey says.

“That’s only if the homo sapiens consider us to be people,” Felicity snarks. 

“That senator is claiming we are weapons of mass destruction,” Kitty adds, causing several of the students in the room to grumble. 

“The Professor and I are working tirelessly to make sure that it doesn’t even come to a vote,” Dr. Grey tells them, raising her hands up to motion that they need to calm down.

As if they aren’t perfectly within their rights to be concerned about this.

“You don’t need to worry,” Dr. Grey says. With that, she turns off the TV again and gives them a pointed look, letting them know that she’s not going to allow them to watch any longer.

“Whatever,” Felicity grumbles and moves off the couch, pulling Cooper along after her and towards the dormitories.

“Doors stay open,” Dr. Grey calls after them, and if Felicity could get away with it, she would have sent a bolt of electricity straight at the woman for the comment. She’s sick of all of the adults constantly watching Cooper and her every move. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Felicity says with a dismissive wave of her hand. 

Felicity is sick of a lot of things around here. 

“We can’t just sit back and watch as them do this to us,” Felicity says once they reach her bedroom. 

“I thought you didn’t care enough to get involved,” Cooper says, sitting down on her bed. 

“I didn’t,” she says. “But I’m not about to leave my fate in the hands of Jean Grey.” 

“What are you going to do?” he asks, pulling her down into his lap. She goes willingly. 

“You’re the one that keeps telling me I have these powers for a reason,” she says. “I think it’s about time I start using them.” 

“Felicity Smoak,” he says with a smile. “It’s about time you stepped up. Now you just need a cool name.” 

“No.” 

“Malware.” 

“No,” she says, with a roll of her eyes. 

“You can’t save the world with the name Felicity,” he tells her. 

“Is that a challenge?” 


	13. March 2007

**March 2007:**

Felicity feels sick to her stomach as she reads the headline on CNN.com that afternoon. The Mutant Registration Act passed the House and is now being brought before the Senate. What sickens her the most isn’t just that the act got a majority vote, but just how much of a majority it got.

73%.

73% of the 435 representatives voted in favor of stripping mutants of their civil liberties. 

317 of the 435 representatives could care less about how the Mutant Registration Act puts mutants at a greater risk of persecution. 

“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause,” Cooper quotes Star Wars with a bitter laugh as he reads over her shoulder. 

Felicity looks up to the front of the room where Dr. McCoy is currently helping another student run an experiment and has to swallow down her rage. 

They told them that everything would be fine. They promised them that there was nothing to worry about. Each time the students voiced their genuine concern for the legislation that was being pushed through congress, the adults all treated them like naive idiots. As if they couldn’t possibly have any idea of how the world worked. 

As if all they really needed was to have faith that the X-Men were on it. 

What complete bullshit. 

Next thing, they’re going to try and convince them that the Mutant Registration Act isn’t even a big deal. Like it doesn’t signal the start of something much more sinister. Like it won’t eventually lead to the government hunting them all down and locking them up. Or worse, killing them. 

“Why?” Felicity asks, standing up as the lights begin to flicker. 

Dr. McCoy looks up at the lights before turning to look at her in concern. 

“Ms. Smoak. What’s wrong?” he asks. 

Felicity grabs her computer and turns it so that Dr. McCoy can see the screen. 

“You’re what’s wrong,” she says. “Why would you look us in the eye and promise us that everything was going to be alright when you couldn’t have possibly known that?” 

“Ms. Smoak—” he starts to say, taking a step towards her. 

Felicity holds out her hand to halt him, but her emotions are out of control. She ends up sending a bolt of electricity into a shelf full of glass test tubes. They shatter, causing several students to shriek and run out of the room… but not everyone. Felicity notices that at least 10 students have stayed behind and are currently looking back and forth between the computer screen and Dr. McCoy in horror.

“You tell us to trust you, but then you lie right to our faces,” Felicity says, feeling the energy in her body continue to grow. 

“You told us this wouldn’t go through,” Kitty says, glaring at Dr. McCoy. 

“I don’t understand, Dr. Grey said this wouldn’t pass,” another girl says, crossing her arms across her chest. 

The room erupts as every student begins to yell. 

‘Felicity, you need to calm down,’ The Professor says in her mind, and it only makes her more enraged.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she yells, causing the lights above them to shatter and go out.

‘You’re upset, but you don’t want to hurt anybody,’ The Professor says. 

As angry as she is, Felicity knows that he’s right. She doesn’t want to accidently hurt any of her friends. She closes her eyes and tries to focus on the breathing techniques that she’s been working on. 

“Is he talking to you?” Cooper asks her. “Don’t let him get inside your head. You have every right to be pissed off about this.” 

‘Ignore him, Felicity. He doesn’t know how strong you are,’ The Professor says. ‘You know how dangerous you can get when you’re out of control. You need to relax.’ 

It’s ironic. With all of the power currently racing through her body, she’s never felt so powerless. All Felicity’s wanted since finding out about the Mutant Registration Act is to do something about it. To fight back against the never ending oppression, but the adults kept telling her to let them handle it. They told her no. 

Well a bang up job they did. 

Felicity’s hands start to spark as she continues to seethe in anger. 

“Felicity, you need to calm down,” Dr. McCoy says as he ushers the other students out of the room. Kitty and Cooper refuse to leave her side. 

“Stop telling me what to do as if you know best,” Felicity says as her entire body begins to shake with growing power. It’s all she can do to hold it in. 

“I’m just trying to help you,” Dr. McCoy says. “You don’t want to hurt these people.”

“I’m not the threat here!” she yells, causing a bolt of energy to leave her hand and hit the floor, leaving black scorch marks. 

“Felicity, calm down,” Kitty tells her cautiously, but Felicity looks at her in horror, because she can’t breathe. She’s hyperventilating and suddenly her body is releasing all of the energy inside of her and she can’t stop it. Bolts of energy hit the table, the wall, the floor… Cooper has to duck behind a table in order to avoid getting hit himself.

She’s backing up out of the room, nearly tripping over herself to get out before she hurts the two people she cares about most, when she sees The Professor enter the room. 

Suddenly, her limbs freeze and she can no longer move, though that doesn’t stop the energy from continuing to leave her body.

“I’m so sorry, Felicity, but this is for your own good,” The Professor says before raising his hand towards her and suddenly everything goes black. 


End file.
